It seems nowadays everywhere you look, "natural" is in. We are told that we Westerners in particular live in an unnatural, unsustainable society. There are even some who eagerly await its collapse so that we can all go back to living the way we ought to be. In their eyes the Original Sin was not eating some apple out of a garden but Agriculture. That is what has set us down the road to decline ever since.
Natural is good, we are told. Artificial is bad. But what is meant by natural? Has anyone ever watched documentaries or movies about so-called natural hunter-gatherer societies, you know, the ones who live sustainably and harmoniously in nature and wondered where are the disabled members of these societies? Is everyone blessed with good genes and good health--or is Natural Selection at work? Ah, yes, Natural Selection. If we were to put it into practice it would solve the planet's overpopulation woes--and quite cheaply, too. All that's required is to do nothing. The only trouble is that Natural Selection is not an equal-opportunity employer. Natural Selection discriminates--against the poor, the weak, the ill, the elderly. the disabled, and against people like us. How long would some of us, with our sensory issues, last in a typical hunter-gatherer society? Not very long, I suspect. "Survival of the fittest", as Herbert Spencer, NOT Charles Darwin, would put it. No, I don't think anyone seriously wants to bring back Natural Selection. But some of these Natural herbal medicines and such, I just wonder if one of the reasons why they are being promoted is that they are not as effective as big bad pharmaceuticals and therefore there is a natural thinning of the herd so to speak. For example, let's take the foxglove plant, which was used to treat heart disease (it produces digitalis). Why don't doctors prescribe foxglove tea to heart patients? After all, the plant is "natural." Is it just so the big bad pharmaceutical companies can make a profit ripping off the rest of us that digitalis is prescribed now in capsule form? Or is it because if you don't get the dosage exactly right, you can DIE? And that can only be done by standardized production in a laboratory.
So Natural is not always good. And definitely not in Paul's view of the world. In the second half of the fifth chapter of Galatians he lays out what he considers the "natural" state of humankind. I don't know about you but the things he describes there, well, I have had neighbors who live like that and that is why gated communities were invented. He says that's man's true nature, that without God and the Spirit that's what we're all doomed to be like. But the person who has submitted to God (which is what Islam means, by the way), they're a whole 'nuther animal. Joy, peace, kindness, helpfulness--gee, I know who I want living next door to me. I'll take Paul's "spiritual" man any day.
Paul says nature and spirit are at war. This concept isn't unique to Christianity. Islam talks about the inner jihad and Buddhism talks about desire and wanting versus enlightenment. It's a common theme through many of the world's great religions and I suspect that it was so ever since the first group of proto-humans on the African savannah took a look around and said, "You know, we don't have to live like that. We don't have to be like that tribe over there. We can do better." Or as Abraham Lincoln said, "It is not 'can any of us imagine better?' but 'can we all do better?'" Imagining and doing--that's what sets us apart from the rest of the animals. I believe that was the first step towards becoming human. Animals simply don't have that capability.
It is also our nature to invent and devise and explore. It is in our nature to build unnatural things like cities and planes and the Internet just to name a few, to go to the Moon and Mars and split the atom and unfold the secrets of the genome. Why are these things unnatural? A bee collects pollen and makes honey and we say that it is natural. It would be unnatural for the bee NOT to make honey. I say that civilization is to humans what honey-making is to bees. Even our so-called unsustainable civilization. It is our nature to do these things. It would be unnatural if we did not. Yes there are those who try to freeze development at a certain level, whether they are Amish or Amazonian hunter-gatherers, but freezing comes with a price. Better to recognize our unique gifts and use them wisely.
Natural is good, we are told. Artificial is bad. But what is meant by natural? Has anyone ever watched documentaries or movies about so-called natural hunter-gatherer societies, you know, the ones who live sustainably and harmoniously in nature and wondered where are the disabled members of these societies? Is everyone blessed with good genes and good health--or is Natural Selection at work? Ah, yes, Natural Selection. If we were to put it into practice it would solve the planet's overpopulation woes--and quite cheaply, too. All that's required is to do nothing. The only trouble is that Natural Selection is not an equal-opportunity employer. Natural Selection discriminates--against the poor, the weak, the ill, the elderly. the disabled, and against people like us. How long would some of us, with our sensory issues, last in a typical hunter-gatherer society? Not very long, I suspect. "Survival of the fittest", as Herbert Spencer, NOT Charles Darwin, would put it. No, I don't think anyone seriously wants to bring back Natural Selection. But some of these Natural herbal medicines and such, I just wonder if one of the reasons why they are being promoted is that they are not as effective as big bad pharmaceuticals and therefore there is a natural thinning of the herd so to speak. For example, let's take the foxglove plant, which was used to treat heart disease (it produces digitalis). Why don't doctors prescribe foxglove tea to heart patients? After all, the plant is "natural." Is it just so the big bad pharmaceutical companies can make a profit ripping off the rest of us that digitalis is prescribed now in capsule form? Or is it because if you don't get the dosage exactly right, you can DIE? And that can only be done by standardized production in a laboratory.
So Natural is not always good. And definitely not in Paul's view of the world. In the second half of the fifth chapter of Galatians he lays out what he considers the "natural" state of humankind. I don't know about you but the things he describes there, well, I have had neighbors who live like that and that is why gated communities were invented. He says that's man's true nature, that without God and the Spirit that's what we're all doomed to be like. But the person who has submitted to God (which is what Islam means, by the way), they're a whole 'nuther animal. Joy, peace, kindness, helpfulness--gee, I know who I want living next door to me. I'll take Paul's "spiritual" man any day.
Paul says nature and spirit are at war. This concept isn't unique to Christianity. Islam talks about the inner jihad and Buddhism talks about desire and wanting versus enlightenment. It's a common theme through many of the world's great religions and I suspect that it was so ever since the first group of proto-humans on the African savannah took a look around and said, "You know, we don't have to live like that. We don't have to be like that tribe over there. We can do better." Or as Abraham Lincoln said, "It is not 'can any of us imagine better?' but 'can we all do better?'" Imagining and doing--that's what sets us apart from the rest of the animals. I believe that was the first step towards becoming human. Animals simply don't have that capability.
It is also our nature to invent and devise and explore. It is in our nature to build unnatural things like cities and planes and the Internet just to name a few, to go to the Moon and Mars and split the atom and unfold the secrets of the genome. Why are these things unnatural? A bee collects pollen and makes honey and we say that it is natural. It would be unnatural for the bee NOT to make honey. I say that civilization is to humans what honey-making is to bees. Even our so-called unsustainable civilization. It is our nature to do these things. It would be unnatural if we did not. Yes there are those who try to freeze development at a certain level, whether they are Amish or Amazonian hunter-gatherers, but freezing comes with a price. Better to recognize our unique gifts and use them wisely.
